“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday said the passage of a bill to release files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein isn’t what President Donald Trump wanted ― even if he eventually urged Republicans to vote for it.
“This is a dramatic legislative turnaround and a huge loss for Trump, make no mistake,” Colbert said. “For going on four months now, Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson fought the release of the Epstein files with every congressional tool they had. And keep in mind, Congress is loaded with some major tools.
Trump promised during the 2024 campaign that he’d release the Epstein files, then instead spent his first months in office trying to block it, calling it a “Democrat hoax.”
He only changed his mind at the last minute, when it was clear the bill would pass anyway.
For a moment on Tuesday, it looked like the Senate might amend the bill, and Colbert joked at just how much that could’ve complicated the situation.
“It would have to go back to the House, where it has to cross over a river, and under the bridge is a troll,” Colbert said. “And to get by the troll, you have to answer his riddle: ‘What walks on two cankles in the morning, rides a golf cart in the afternoon, and is totally in the Epstein files?’”
Trump was once close friends with Epstein, and his name was in the documents released last week multiple times.
Neither trolls nor riddles will be necessary in this case: The Senate voted unanimously to approve the House bill as-is once it arrives.
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See more in Colbert’s Tuesday night monologue:
